Shelter suggests that 10% of landlords are leaving sector each year

A new report from campaigning charity Shelter suggests that around one in ten landlords are quitting the lettings sector every year.

Utilising research from You Gov, Shelter says that many investors are quitting the sector on an annual basis.

Leaving Landlords

In his new blog, Shelter spokesman John Bibby, noted a survey of nearly 4,500 people has uncovered that 7% of UK adults have previously been a landlord.

Around 29% of these stopped being landlords during the five years to March 2017 – equivalent to around one million people and 200,000 per year.

Mr Bibby said: ‘Of course, the fact that the total number of landlords has continued to increase, even while a large number of landlords have been leaving the market every year, means that even more people are starting to let out property every year.’[1]

Shelter also assessed data from HMRC, which suggests that the number of tax-paying investors in Britain rose by almost half a million pounds in the five years to 2014/15. This took the overall total to over 1.8 million.

Shelter suggests that 10% of landlords are leaving sector each year

Underestimate

The charity suggests that this figure is an underestimate, stating in the blog that, ‘some landlords evade tax by not declaring their rental income and others own their properties through company structures.’

Using these figures regardless, the charity estimates that while 200,000 landlords have quit the sector each year, they have been replaced by 250,000 to 350,000.

Shelter suggests that finding out churn in the sector is extremely important as landlords selling their property could be a good indicator of evictions.